Give family carers £110 a week wages, MPs demand

Relatives of the sick and elderly should be paid a salary of up to £110 a week for looking after them, MPs are demanding.

The benefits system for unpaid carers is outdated and needs to be ' radically overhauled' to recognise carers' 'critical importance', they say in a report today.

There are almost 6million carers in the UK who are believed to save the taxpayer £87billion a year.

Unpaid carer: Jane Sanders looks after her husband Eifion, who is blind, and her son Ben who has Down's syndrome, at the family's Pembroke Dock home

But experts believe many more people taking on such roles do not consider themselves to be carers, as they see it as simply a normal part of family life.

However, they often suffer financial hardship from giving up work, reducing their hours or moving into lower paid jobs - and missing out on pensions contributions.

Almost three-quarters of carers lose an average £11,000 a year, the support group Carers UK claims.

Carers also face greater health problems as a result of the physical and emotional stress of their demanding roles.

There is a carer's allowance of £50.55 a week, but it is denied to those receiving a state pension, those who spend less than 35 hours a week on care, those earning more than £95 a week after tax and full-time students.

The report recommends a new two-tier benefits system, which could see welfare payments to full-time carers more than double to £110.

Under proposals from the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, those providing care for at least 35 hours a week should receive £60.50 - equal to jobseekers' allowance - as 'income replacement'.

This carer support allowance would still let carers earn up to £95 a week from paid work.

However, it would add an estimated £130million to the annual welfare bill.

A second benefit of between £25 and £50 a week - the caring costs payment - would be available to all carers, including those on a state pension, at a cost to taxpayers of up to £2billion a year.

It would be used to compensate carers for the extra costs of looking after someone - for example heating, washing and food bills, transport and parking costs.

Many also pay for dressings and other medical equipment out of their own pocket and some even cover the costs of

adaptations to their homes. Neither of the proposed benefits would be means-tested.

The report aim to redress the failure to provide direct financial aid to carers in June, when the Government announced a £255million package of measures to support carers, including cash to extend respite breaks, provide health checks

and help carers stay in jobs. But there was not enough money available to pay carers for the support they provide.

'Sustaining the ability of carers to provide the care and support they give to others is of critical importance.'

The report calls for an immediate independent review on the 'impact of caring on carers' incomes and of the long-term costs of caring for an older person or someone with a disability'.

It says: 'Carer's allowance is outdated. Carers' benefits should be radically overhauled at the earliest opportunity to recognise the contribution carers make and to be more flexible to reflect carers' different circumstances.'

Imelda Redmond, chief executive of Carers UK, said: 'As well as being insultingly low, carer's allowance does not recognise carers' individual circumstances and discourages them from combining caring with paid work.

'The two-tier benefit recommended by the committee would be a major improvement.

'Carers need a separate benefit which recognises that they are not unemployed, but are making an important contribution to society.

'Many carers are living in poverty and rising fuel and food prices are hitting them hard.'

The MPs warn that with longer life expectancy and improved survival rates among the sick and disabled, more and more people will have to shoulder the burden of caring for friends and relatives.

Citizens Advice welfare policy officer Vicky Pearlman said: 'It is crucial that the Government takes action to boost carers' incomes as a matter of urgency.

'The current system is enormously complicated. Even Department for Work and Pensions staff struggle to correctly identify, and clearly explain, the benefits that carers and their families are entitled to.

'The Government needs to look seriously at how it can remove the barriers that make it difficult for carers to engage in the labour market.'

CASE STUDY: A benefit 'that is years overdue'

Jane Sanders quit her job as a nurse 13 years ago to care full time for her husband Eifion, 51, and eldest son Ben, 23.

Mr Sanders is registered blind and disabled, while Ben - with whom she is pictured, above - has Down's syndrome. Both also have Type One diabetes.

Mother-of-three Mrs Sanders, 46, of Pembroke Dock, Dyfed, South Wales, says she cares for them 24 hours a day for a weekly allowance of just £50.55. She added: 'The Government has been taking carers for granted.

'I feel betrayed that the state has done so little for me. People get child allowances and that's just because they're a parent.

'But as a carer I have had to give up my job, I work around the clock and I am constantly exhausted, but I only get a carer's allowance.

'The only time I get time off is when my daughter steps in, but I don't want her life taken over by it.' Mrs Sanders used to work three nights a week at South Pembrokeshire Hospital but left in 1995 after the death of her mother, who cared for her husband.

Today, the household income is around £400 a week, including Mrs Sanders carer's allowance and various incapacity benefits and disability allowances her husband and son are entitled to.

Every penny has gone on the mortgage at the family's three-bedroom terraced house, household bills, food, petrol and other costs.

'The house hasn't been decorated in 18 years because we can't afford it and the last time I had any respite was 18 months ago,' said Mrs Sanders.

'I haven't had any since then because the council takes some of the benefits if I do.

'The plans to change carers' benefits are a good idea. But they are years overdue.'